The Chicago Blackhawks lost the services of Martin Havlat, Nikolai Khabibulin, and Samuel Pahlsson on Wednesday, but the Chicago Tribune's Chris Kuc suggests that they came away winners by spiriting Marian Hossa away from the Red Wings. Hossa signed a 12-year, $62.8 million deal, joining John Madden and Tomas Kopecky on a revamped Blackhawks roster:

July 1, Chicago Tribune: "We felt [he] was the best player available on the free-agent market with his experience and durability," Hawks general manager Dale Tallon said. "He's an elite-level, world-class player. [We felt] he would be a tremendous asset to our team and to our young players, and help lead us to the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup."

The Hawks also signed 27-year-old forward Tomas Kopecky, who also played for the Wings the last four seasons, to a two-year, $2.4 million deal and center John Madden from the New Jersey Devils to a one-year, reported $2.75 million contract.

The Hossa deal means the end of Martin Havlat's time with the Hawks a season after the winger led them in scoring with 29 goals and 48 assists. In addition to losing Havlat (not yet signed), goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin (Edmonton), defenseman Matt Walker (Tampa Bay) and center Sammy Pahlsson (Columbus) signed with other teams.

"Maybe I'll sit back ... and think about it, but it wasn't the primary goal," Tallon said of making the Hawks better while Detroit lost its leading goal scorer (40 goals, 31 assists). "The primary goal was to get the best players for our team. [The Wings] are still a great team ... and the West is tough. You have to stay ahead of the pace."

Tallon and the Hawks worked to re-sign Havlat and the GM said the idea of signing Hossa in case they wouldn't be able to bring Havlat back "kind of came out of nowhere" over the last week. Once free agency began and a deal hadn't been struck with Havlat, the Hawks changed direction.

"Marian wants to play with good players," Tallon said. "He wants to play on a good team and he wants to win. He can play defense and offense and score 40 goals and get you pretty well a point a game. He's strong and durable and extremely skilled. He's a game-breaker."

Durability is a key as Hossa has only missed 30 games over the last nine seasons while playing for the Ottawa Senators, Atlanta Thrashers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Red Wings. Havlat, on the other hand, had three injury-plagued seasons before appearing in a career-high 81 games as a winger in '08-09.

As the Chicago Daily Herald's Tim Sassone noted, Tallon claimed that Hossa's signing would not preclude the team from re-signing Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, or Duncan Keith next summer:

July 1, Chicago Daily Herald: The deal was front-loaded to keep the cap hit relatively low at $5.2 million, which Tallon figures will be a great help next summer when the team must re-sign Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. Hossa will earn $59.3 million over the first eight years of the deal and $3.5 million for the final four.

"The type of contract Marian agreed to will not influence - our core will get taken care of," Tallon said. "We've identified who the top guys are in our organization. This deal did not affect our core going forward, and that was appealing to us. This deal was important to get done at this term (12 years) to help us in the future solidify that core group."

Hossa didn't exactly talk about Chicago's veteran experience...

"When I look at Chicago, I see an exciting team that's big, fast and strong with a lot of young guys," Hossa said. "I see a bright future in Chicago. They are hungry. They haven't won the Stanley Cup in a long time. You can see their hunger. This is a young, hungry team and they want to go for it."

But Tallon told Sassone that the Blackhawks chose to target Hossa after their attempts to re-sign Martin Havlat fell apart at the NHL Entry Draft:

"I was surprised how serious they were," Hossa said. "They really wanted me and that was what drove me to sign a contract with them."

"This kind of came out of nowhere," Tallon said. "In our meetings in Montreal we came up with some secondary plans if we were unable to get Nik or Marty signed."

The Hawks heard Hossa had put them high on his list of teams he would like to play for.

"To have this guy identify that we were a destination team hasn't happened in the past for us," Tallon said. "I know this day has been very frustrating in the past. Last year was finally a success (with the signing of Brian Campbell and Huet), and here we go again. That makes you feel good about what's going on."

Heading back to Kuc for a moment, it doesn't necessarily mean anything, but Dan Cleary's accidental trip of Patrick Kane led to an ankle injury which lasted for the balance of the 2008-2009 season:

July 1, Chicago Tribune: Patrick Kane played a good portion of the Blackhawks' 2008-09 season in pain after suffering a high-ankle sprain in late December.

The 20-year-old winger is spending a lot of time in the gym and not much on the ice during his summer break and isn't sure the injury is fully healed. Kane said he has skated "six or seven times this summer trying to get away from the game a bit" but hasn't given the ankle a good test.

"I'll probably be able to tell when I'm out there against better competition and playing in a real game situation," said Kane, who is scheduled to take the ice during the U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Orientation Camp from Aug. 17-19 at Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge. "It's a tough injury. It's one of those things that doesn't go away too easily. I know I only missed two games with it but it wasn't a great injury to have especially in the middle of the season. One of my goals this year is to do some exercises on it and try to get it 100 percent -- where I was when I started the season last year."

Despite all the time in the gym, don't expect to see a behemoth when training camp arrives.

"You want to get stronger but that doesn't necessarily mean bulking up," said Kane, who is listed at 5 feet 10 inches, 175 pounds. "I still want to have my speed and get faster. I'm just working on my game all around so I can play a full 82 games."